George Russell says Mercedes is “trying so many different things” to cure the W13’s bouncing as it is convinced that will solve most of its current weaknesses.
Mercedes has been one of the teams to struggle the most with the phenomenon known as ‘porpoising’, which has returned to Formula 1 amid the change of aerodynamic philosophy for 2022.
Mercedes had the third-fastest car in Bahrain, with Lewis Hamilton and Russell having been on course for fifth and sixth respectively, until Red Bull’s late double retirement.
“We are quite draggy, but this porpoising we’re experiencing down the straight is going to slow you down because we’re smashing into the ground rather than going forward,” he said.
“The lap time deficit we have is probably 50 per cent [on the] straights, 50 per cent corners.
“It offers a glimmer of hope; we all believe we can solve the issue, but we truly just don’t know how long it’ll take, it might be next weekend or might not be until the summer break.”
Russell explained that the bouncing “affected the tyres because in every braking zone you’re bouncing into the corner and the rears are just skipping under braking as the car is so unsettled.
“We know if we unlock the performance it’s going to benefit everything, it’ll help tyres, help us under braking, it will give us more grip.
“We really hope we can find a solution as soon as possible as we just know that’ll answer a lot of our issues, but it is easier said than done.”
Russell conceded that Mercedes’ focus on solving the bouncing is detracting its work on other aspects of the W13.
“We’re trying so many different things, which is also limiting our weekend because we’re so focused on that and so fixated on that we’re not looking at other parts of the car,” he said.
“I think behind the scenes we’re understanding it a little bit more but truly [we are] not where we want to be.”
